Malloy asks lawmakers to reconsider “mini-budget”

Updated 10:08 pm, Monday, July 17, 2017

Flanked by Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, left, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy speaks to the media after meeting with senate and house leaders in budget negotiations at the Capitol in Hartford, Conn. on Thursday, June 1, 2017.

Flanked by Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, left, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy speaks to the media after meeting with senate and house leaders in budget negotiations at the Capitol in Hartford, Conn. on Thursday, June 1, 2017.

HARTFORD — Admitting growing frustration with a General Assembly that has failed to work together to solve the state’s budget crisis, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Monday met with advocates for people with intellectual disabilities to underscore what is at stake.

Malloy said the 650,000 people who depend on social services in the state are being held hostage by the divided House and Senate, which failed to negotiate in time for the start of the new fiscal year on July 1.

“I’m the only person who’s put anything on the table,” Malloy told reporters after a tour of Harc Inc., a provider of services for the developmentally disabled since 1951.

Since the start of the fiscal year, Malloy has overseen spending by executive order, with anticipated massive cuts to school and municipal aid scheduled for Sept. 1 if lawmakers continue the stalemate without addressing a projected $5 billion deficit.

He suggested state lawmakers reconsider adoption of a 90-day stopgap budget they recently rejected.

Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz, however, rejected the idea, again, a short time later.

“Every day that we delay and do not sit down and negotiate in earnest toward a full two-year budget is a step back, and that is the only thing a so-called ‘mini-budget’ would do,” said Aresimowicz, D-Berlin. “We need to solely focus on moving our state forward.”

Earlier this month, House Democrats had scheduled a Tuesday vote on a new two-year, $39-billion budget, but then abruptly canceled the special session last week. They will caucus Tuesday at 11 a.m.

House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, said GOP lawmakers have a balanced budget ready for debate and a vote.

“House Republicans are prepared to vote on our two-year budget now, and formulated a temporary, one-month budget version, as well, that does not gut social services programs,” Klarides said.

Malloy discounted the Republican budget as an unworkable bill that would reject the union concessions he has planned to save $1.5 billion during the biennium and $24 billion over the next 20 years, with higher employee insurance co-payments and a new retirement plan for the estimated 16,000 new state employees expected to be hired over the next five years, as a generation of senior-level state workers retire.